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Steve Sanger is a partnerships and commercial leader who helps marketplaces and B2B SaaS…
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"2023: A Challenging Year Ahead for Food & Ag Startups - Navigating Uncertainty in the Road to Sustainability"
"2023: A Challenging Year Ahead for Food & Ag Startups - Navigating Uncertainty in the Road to Sustainability"
I'm a bit discouraged. The food / ag industry seems fraught with issues as I talk to investors and startups.
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Steve Sanger shared thisWanted to share with my network that one of my former portfolio companies, Oobli, is looking to hire a Fractional CFO. It's a great company with a fantastic team. If anyone is interested, feel free to shoot me an email.
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Steve Sanger shared thisA great post by Fred Hoch that every CVC leader, CFO, and corporate strategy exec should read. He describes the "CVC Management Void," one of the most expensive, least-discussed problems in the industry. The average financial venture fund is structured for 10 years. The average corporate venture unit lasts about four, resulting in a 6-year lifecycle gap. This is something I experienced first-hand. Strategic priorities shift every 18-24 months. Reorgs are common. A new CEO or CFO often has a very different view of corporate venture than his or her predecessor. When this happens, the original thesis becomes orphaned. A portfolio that took years and significant capital to build slowly deteriorates, not because the startups failed, but because no one is managing the legacy assets, or if someone is, they lack the portfolio management and venture capital experience to do it well. The cost to the corporation is larger than most realize -> lapsed pro-rata rights, pay-to-play rounds, damaged founder and ecosystem relationships. Portfolio assets sit on the balance sheet at valuations that no longer reflect reality. Worth a read if you're running a CVC or sitting on a CVC portfolio. https://lnkd.in/gaxQeUkP
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Steve Sanger posted thisI'm late posting about this, but huge kudos to Noah Glass and the team at Olo on the forthcoming launch of their consumer-facing app. By launching their consumer app, they're providing tremendous value to restaurants with zero commissions, data-sharing, and no middleman markup. The orders that flow directly into their existing systems allow them to be commission-free without sacrificing their own unit economics, thanks to payment processing volume through Olo Pay and other services. This is where being a private company helps. This might have been a tough sell to the Street. I look forward to seeing how this plays out. Olo doesn't need to monetize the consumer (though that's an option at scale). They monetize the infrastructure, payments, and the data layer underneath, and that's differentiated from anyone else in the space. The real question is whether consumers will download another app. We'll see. But Olo's starting position is strong given that 800+ restaurant brands are already on the platform and they have access to 40 million consumers with saved payment info. That's a great start. Noah Glass is one of the smartest entrepreneurs I've come across. I'm pulling for him.
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Steve Sanger shared thisThanks Brandon J. Martin. Looking forward to being a part of the program and supporting CalNutri, Inc. and Zucca to help identify emerging consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands into accelerator program. cc:Karen HuhSteve Sanger shared thisI'd like to welcome Steve Sanger to the CalNutri, Inc. & Zucca Accelerator Selection Committee! • Steve is a seasoned board director, investor, and strategic advisor, specializing in corporate governance, commercialization, and high-growth business scaling. With deep expertise in food tech, SaaS, retail, marketplaces, and venture capital, Steve has guided companies through market expansion, strategic partnerships, and capital allocation. • As a former General Partner at Evolv Ventures (Kraft Heinz’s $100M venture capital fund), Steve led over $25m in investments in food tech, agritech, and SaaS companies, serving on the boards of New Culture, Oobli, and Zippin. • Steve was part of the early leadership team at GrubHub and played a pivotal role in scaling the business, specializing in leading strategic M&A and business development. Visit https://lnkd.in/gCuHpDg9 to learn more about our Accelerate! 2026 program David Ackerman, Penina Polofsky, Trevor Martin, Karen Huh
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Steve Sanger shared thisI’ve always liked Allbirds. I have a couple of pairs of shoes from them and have always valued the product and mission. I haven't paid much thought to the company over the last couple of years so the news this morning that Allbirds will close its U.S. stores by the end of February and focus on e-commerce, wholesale, and international distributors caught my attention. Here’s what jumped out at me (and why it’s bigger than Allbirds, especially for brands that have jumped into retail): The cost of capital is higher now than the low interest rate years of 2016-2021. That matters because “time” is expensive when you’re burning cash and refinancing is harder now than it used to be. Cash runway is the strategy -> As of 9/30/25, Allbirds reported $23.7M of cash, and $(51.8)M of operating cash outflow over the first three quarters of 2025 (~$5.8M/month on average). Wow. I was stunned that they were down to that amount of cash. They have a revolver of $50M, but still. Management also used the words “substantial doubt” about their ability to operate as a going concern over the next year. Yikes! Direct-to-Consumer is getting “unbundled" after inital growth -> In the 2016–2021 era, the playbook was: build / grow DTC, add stores and buy growth. In 2025–2026, the playbook is increasingly: simplify, cut fixed costs, and find channels that can scale with less capital, even if it means giving up some margin/control via wholesale or distributors. The consumer is still spending, but it's a tough environment (see most recent consumer confidence report) -> Retail sales can look “fine” at the surface, yet value-seeking consumers keep pressure on discretionary brands, especially in apparel/footwear. The primary takeaway is that this is what the “retail” reset looks like for modern retail brands in 2026. https://lnkd.in/gj5C4QnX
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Steve Sanger shared thisInteresting news about California’s new law requiring food delivery platforms to give customers a clear path to a human when automation can’t resolve the issue. I understand the push toward automation: lower costs, faster resolution for straightforward cases, and consistency at scale. At Grubhub, I always felt customer service was a real competitive advantage for us. When something went wrong, those moments weren’t just “cost centers," they were chances to turn frustration into trust. Fix the issue quickly, treat people fairly, and you don’t just retain a customer, you often deepen the relationship and earn word-of-mouth you can’t buy. The question I keep coming back to is........are we underestimating the downstream cost of “deflection-first” support? A few dollars saved per ticket can get expensive if it drives higher churn, lower frequency, and weaker brand affinity over time. California’s approach is interesting because it’s not anti-automation as it allows customers an option to speak to someone if automation can't resolve the issue. #CustomerExperience #CustomerSupport #RestaurantTech #FoodDelivery #Automation #RetentionCalifornia law gives food delivery customers right to talk to a humanCalifornia law gives food delivery customers right to talk to a human
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Steve Sanger posted thisLooking for some assistance, does anyone have suggestions for getting NotebookLM presentation PDFs into Google Slides so I can edit them? I’ve tried a few approaches but haven’t found a great solution yet. Any tips, workarounds, or tools you’d recommend?
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Steve Sanger posted thisDrive-thru continues to be one of the most important places for quick-service restaurants to prove real AI value. Presto’s recent $10M round is another signal that Voice AI ordering is moving from demos to real deployment at scale. Why this matters: - Off-prem is the business now: the National Restaurant Association notes nearly 75% of restaurant traffic occurs off-premises. - Drive-thru is a weekly habit: 42% of adults say they use the drive-thru each week. Consumers value speed at the drive-thru and recent research (Intouch Insight’s 25th Annual Drive-Thru Study) suggests Voice AI can improve speed, but sometimes at the expense of accuracy: - Service time improved: 3:53 with Voice AI vs 4:15 average - Accuracy slipped: 83% with Voice AI vs 87% average - Human-in-the-loop wins: when staff stepped in to support Voice AI, accuracy jumped to 95% This demonstrates the need for humans in the loop, at least for now, to complement AI ordering and drive maximum throughput and guest satisfaction. At Monocle Advisory, I’m helping restaurant-tech teams and operators turn AI into measurable outcomes through business development and GTM/partnership strategies that drive revenue. I'm always looking to network with folks in the restaurant space so reach out to chat. #RestaurantTech #QSR #AI #VoiceAI #DriveThru #Operations #CustomerExperience
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Steve Sanger posted thisIt’s getting tough out there for the premium fast-casual crowd. - Sweetgreen: stock down 87% YTD - CAVA: down 57% YTD - Chipotle: down 49% YTD Yikes!! Sweetgreen’s same-store sales fell –9.5% YoY, highlighting a growing shift in consumer behavior as people are prioritizing affordability. Many of these brands scaled rapidly on the promise of health, sustainability, and premium quality. But as discretionary spend compresses, those differentiators are being tested. Consumers are trading down and the “better-for-you” value proposition isn’t enough on its own right now. After years of chasing growth through expansion, the next phase will be defined by optimization and discipline, dialing in unit economics and retention instead of new stores.
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Steve Sanger liked thisSteve Sanger liked thisVori announced its Series B yesterday. This is a special one for me, and a founder I love, so wanted to share a few words. I met Brandon Hill when Vori was just getting started. I was focused on b2b/vertical marketplaces and food supply chain, which was Brandon's starting point. What struck me immediately was his combination of grit, product chops, and (extreme) customer/industry empathy. He quite literally grew up in it. He's the third generation in his family to work in grocery. His parents spent 40 years in the industry. His grandparents too. But he was also steeped in technology in a way few grocery operators ever had been. He'd gone to Stanford, built a code school backed by VMware, and was now going back to grocery to modernize the massive independent segment. That combination was rare, so Greylock led the Seed. A few years later, Vori is live in 130+ stores. Net new ARR has gone from $1M a year, to $1M a quarter, to $1M+ a month (and accelerating). 99% of customers stay. Cherryrock Capital led the $22M Series B with Greylock Partners and Factory participating. Vori is a bold application of AI to a large, essential, physical-world industry. They've done years of heavy lifting to own POS, inventory, pricing, and payments. AI now sits inside that stack, making every layer sharper. It's a rare example of a true AI operating system for a physical business. There's also a real data advantage underneath. Every transaction, vendor cost, and shrink pattern across 130+ stores trains a system that uniquely understands independent grocery. That data only exists inside Vori. As frontier models get more capable, Vori's customers get more profitable and Vori's data gets more valuable. It's also worth saying: nobody else was willing to do the work to get here. Brandon, Tre, and Rob spent years going store to store learning the business and earning customers' trust before they wrote a line of production code. The company has lived through several near-death moments and kept showing up. Grocery is a $1.5T market still running on fax machines and paper invoices. The frontier labs aren't going to build software for independent grocers. Vori already has. If you want your work to show up in the real world, Vori is hiring. So psyched for you Brandon, Tremaine, Robert, and the whole Vori team.
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Steve Sanger liked thisSteve Sanger liked thisQ1 results this morning from Burger King, Tim Hortons, Popeyes, and Firehouse Subs parent company Restaurant Brands International: Same-store sales climbed 5.8 percent at Burger King as the comeback continues (two-year stack of 4.5 percent after a decline of 1.3 percent this time a year ago). The U.S. rose 5.8 percent as well (4.7 percent two year). Burger King shed 0.9 percent net growth after declining 1.1 percent in the prior-year period. Today, there are 7,001 Burger Kings compared to 7,062, year-over-year. To note, as of March 31, RBI has funded $189 million out of up to $550 million it has planned for a “Royal Reset” strategy to remodel, relocate, and upgrade locations, from tech to kitchen equipment and building enhancements. So, more to come. Same-store sales growth of 1.6 percent (1.5 percent two-year stack) for Tim Hortons. That includes 1.5 percent (1.6 percent two year) in Canada. Net restaurant growth of 1 percent to reach 4,569 locations. Popeyes’ same-store sales dropped 6.5 percent and are down 10.5 percent on a two-year basis. Same for the U.S. The brand grew its unit count 1.2 percent after 3 percent last year to get to 3,559 stores from 3,516. The brand is in the early stages of its turnaround effort under new president Peter Perdue (former COO of BK). Same-store sales declined 0.5 percent at Firehouse (two year of 0.1 percent). The U.S. was up 0.3 percent (0.6 percent two year). Net restaurant growth of 8.1 percent following 5.9 percent to reach 1,461 stores versus 1,352 a year ago.
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Steve Sanger liked thisSteve Sanger liked thisI figured LinkedIn would be a good place to share this. Thanks to Elaine Watson at AgFunder for the great conversation!
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Steve Sanger liked thisSteve Sanger liked thisChowBus just raised $81M. I was the first angel investor, BUT I walked away from their first pitch. Here's why: Linxen and Suyu met me for coffee. They showed me their mobile app, said they had a few restaurants signed up for the platform, and that was about it. It was NOT a polished presentation. There wasn’t even a pitch deck. We didn’t talk again for almost a year. The next time I met them, they still didn’t have a pitch deck, but the business has grown considerably. The technology connecting consumers, drivers, and operations was impressive. I also learned more about Linxen and Suyu. While early in their professional careers, both were very accomplished academically. Suyu was probably the most talented mobile engineer in Chicago. They exhibited grit by bootstrapping for over a year. After the 2nd meeting, I didn’t walk away from ChowBus. I invested and helped them build a pitch deck and taught them how to pitch angel investors. They went on to raise an angel round, a seed round, numerous VC and growth rounds totalling over $130M. I want to be emphasize that Founders NEED to be prepared for your pitch meetings. You may not get a 2nd chance. But at the end of the day, the most important things when building a startup are: 1.. Exceptional Founders 2.. Traction demonstrating product market fit 3.. A mission investors can get behind. ChowBus is the rare example of a great founders with a not-so-great first pitch. Any other examples come to mind?
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Steve Sanger liked thisSteve Sanger liked thisWe just wrapped up an incredible week in Malta with the Nium team on the ground and a handful of partners who flew in. Our Malta team leads and operates many of the key functions that power Nium across Europe and globally. This last week was action packed: town halls, local board meetings, strategy sessions on new products and growth, and time to actually connect with the people doing the work every day. (The amazing Mediterranean food and weather didn't hurt either.) Wednesday evening, we hosted a dinner with a handful of my team members in Valletta, and it stopped me in my tracks. Around one table, we had colleagues from Malta, Germany, Venezuela, Nigeria, the UK, France, New Zealand, India, and the United States. It's one thing to say you are part of a global Company. It's another to sit at the same table with colleagues from all around the world and feel it. That diversity of background, perspective, and experience is not a talking point for us. It is the actual edge. And it only works when you invest in bringing people together in person. I watched problems that had been slow-moving for weeks get solved in real time when the right people were sitting next to each other in the same room. There's no workflow that replaces the real, in person connection that we often need. While trying not to get ahead of myself, I also got a sneak peek at what (might) be a new home for our Malta team later this year. This new office will be a pretty big statement of the kind of long-term commitment Nium is making to Malta and the people here. More to come... Spencer Hanlon Santhosh Srinivasan Mark Anthony Spiteri #Nium #Fintech #GlobalTeams #Leadership #CrossBorderPayments #Malta #CompanyBuilding #TeamCulture
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Education
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
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Board Member
New Culture
- 3 years
A food technology company developing sustainable and animal-free dairy products through precision fermentation.
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Board Member
Oobli
- 2 years
Oobli is a food tech company focused on building new and exciting foods around the best tasting and healthiest sweeteners in the world. These sweeteners are natural, exotic fruit proteins that evolved to provide sweetness without sugar.
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Board Member
Zippin
- 1 year
A technology company focusing on the retail industry with its checkout-free, frictionless shopping platform that utilizes computer vision and AI.
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Board Observer
Parsable
- less than a year
An industrial worker platform that empowers enterprises with digital tools to enhance workforce productivity, compliance, and data-driven insights across their operations.
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Michael Fassnacht
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